this week, mr. chaloemphon malakham & the sound of the 80s northeast! chaloemphon is from surin province in south isan, and like many modern stars, he made his way to the stage through local singing contests. he recorded his first album in 1985 and quickly became a top singer of the molam-influenced luk thung that still dominates thai radio today. in addition to his solo work and string of duets with phimpha phonsiri, chaloemphon is also a noted songwriter for the likes of poifai malaiphon & other stars from the siang isan band. at just over 50 years of age he still puts on a great live show, and if you're in bangkok tomorrow night be sure to catch him at the isan lam sing bar in ramkhamhaeng! enjoy!!

back this week after holiday travels, we've got a great old tape of big band instrumentals! from what i can piece together about their history, the sri krung brass were established by narot thawonbut in 1935 as the house band for sri krung sound film studio to provide incidental music to the films the studio produced. when public relations dept. band veteran saman kanchanaphalin took the helm decades later, the group became an outlet for his experiments in "modified thai classical music". on this cassette, however, what you have is your favorite thai pop melodies and percussive, folk-style talung numbers filtered through a herb albert sort of vibe. pretty nice stuff, enjoy!

enchanting songs of thailand

a collection of great music made by the people of thailand; luk thung, luk krung, molam, regional folk styles & more. mostly recorded from tape, sound quality should be pretty good (unless stated otherwise). transliteration is done using the royal thai general system of transcription. feedback/re-upload requests/etc. always appreciated!